Sky Captain Himself Discusses "Sky Captain"
The San Diego Comic Con has become the place to
generate buzz for upcoming movies and TV shows. Studios realize if the
70,000+ hardcore fans who attend the event like what they see, the word
of mouth campaign can create a blockbuster hit. It’s no wonder then
that Paramount Pictures brought “Sky
Captain and the World of Tomorrow” to the Con.
Giant 70’ robots greeted fans on the way into the
San Diego Convention Center, the “Sky Captain” booth was a big draw
in the main exhibit hall, and “Sky Captain” stars Jude
Law, Giovanni Ribisi, and Bai Ling joined writer/director Kerry
Conran and producer Jon Avnet on stage in the 6,500 seat auditorium to
get the crowd pumped up about the upcoming September 17, 2004 release.
Before taking the stage, I sat down with Law to talk
about this very unusual film (I’ve seen it and it’s definitely a
unique moviegoing experience).
INTERVIEW WITH JUDE LAW:
You went from playing a robot in a Spielberg film
to fighting robots.
What’s more fun?
(Laughing) Goodness. That’s a really hard question because they were
such sort of different types of robots. I think for me it’s always
been the most recent experience is often the most fun because you just
kind of come out of it. I think also this was very much a type of role I
really wanted to play at some point in my career. And “AI” came
along and was such a kind of curveball, and it was such a sort of
unusual experience creating that character, that robot, that it was a
permanent sort of taste [or] collaboration with makeup. Whereas with
this one is was very much like fitting into a skin that was very
familiar, that had a huge backstory that has existed in other forms in
other characters whether it’s Buck Rogers or Flash Gordon before and
was, therefore, something that I wanted to fit into. Do you see what I
mean? So yeah, I suppose “Sky Captain,” but they were both fun.
As Sky Captain, you do a sideways neck crack at the
end of the movie. Was that a Gigolo Joe reference?
I do it before, as well, when I drink my Milk of Magnesia. (Laughing)
No, it wasn’t but it should be. I’ve got to steal that. A little
wink to the Gigolo Joe lovers.
How did you get involved with “Sky Captain?”
I got involved really early on, not as early as Kerry [Conran]
obviously. It’s about two years ago and basically Jon [Avnet], who I
had met a couple of times before, wanted to show me this teaser trailer.
And I was just very simply blown away by this. I didn’t kind of get
what he’d already told me about how this guy made it. I loved his
references. I thought it was very clear that he was a filmmaker who had
an incredible sense of style and rhythm, and his composition was
beautiful. And I loved it.
All I got at that early stage was that he’d used
pretty advanced and unused technology to create a very retrospective
look. And I loved that kind of duality of that. I loved that rather than
creating a super-real world or a world of the future, he was going back
with advanced technology and it seemed like the right way to do that.
But I loved the clear references that were there in that trailer,
whether it was Fritz Lang or “Citizen Kane” or “The Third Man,”
as Kerry [has] mentioned before. And then I thought, “Well, this is
great but where’s the script?” And then he said, “Well, read the
script,” and it was clear then that this guy was also an incredibly
good writer above and beyond the visual that he was really quick to give
me in the teaser and also with the artwork. I mean, this particular
poster was also on the front of the script. What was clear was also that
at the center was a really great cinematic relationship, which you could
put into any genre and it would work. You know, that kind of bickering
[relationship]. I always like to call it “African Queen” meets
“Buck Rogers,” because you know it’s [that] kind of relationship.
If you can create two good characters and a history and a world around
them and a dynamic between them, you can put them anywhere and people
will want to watch. And there’s the humor in all the obvious kinds of
references to world domination and gadgets and gizmos. And I was just
eager and keen to get onboard.
What’s interesting is obviously a lot of people want
to know was the process hard because of the amount of blue screen we
used and was there a sense of disorientation because of the fact. But in
fact, Kerry was so clear from the get-go in his own kind of humble,
incredibly shy way, so strong with what he knew could be created and was
so eager to draw us all into that, that we felt from the get-go that we
knew exactly what this was going to become. It was only really until I
saw it back a couple of weeks ago finally finished that I realized what
a leap of faith we’d all made (laughing). I was watching it thinking,
“God, there was nothing there. How the f*** did we know? How did we
know?” And we really didn’t. But what was clear was this guy’s
world. And as I’ve probably said over and over again, his references
were really strong. And so it was just a matter of kind of going along
with that.
"Sky
Captain and the World of Tomorrow" was
helmed by a first-time writer/director. That is quite a leap of faith
for you.
Yeah, but again, it’s interesting. First of all, I really enjoy the
opportunity of changing the kind of challenge. The film I had done just
before this was “Cold
Mountain” so the idea of kind of going from extreme locations,
real locations, real temperatures, to a world in which we have to create
everything and imagine everything was to me an ideal kind of way of
learning [or] reinventing the process of what it is to create a
character, what it is to complete a role within a whole piece. I always
think experience obviously counts for a lot and success obviously counts
for a lot, but at the same time, if you meet someone who is clear and
collaborative and brave and talented then you want to work with them
just as much as you want to work with someone who is a tried and tested
genius, you know?
How close was the teaser trailer you first saw to
the finished film?
Well interestingly enough, it’s kind of like the first six minutes of
the film and very close, very close still.
A lot of that first shot of the spinning clock, you know
the clock with the two statues that kind of spiral in as the zeppelin
comes in? A lot of that. Obviously it’s evolved from that but it comes
goes right through. The initial introduction of Sky Captain, we stuck to
the idea that [the voice you first hear] he is a friend of his, that’s
why the first look is this hidden thing because he kind of liked the
idea of [not wanting] to show who his friend was so it’s just a voice.
We kind of stuck with that, so it was pretty close.
You also have a producing credit on this. What did
you do in that capacity?
Well again, because it was such early days, Jon [Avnet] needed help
rallying around a team, because obviously there was no involvement with
Paramount at the time, to enable this vision to be realized. I’d been
developing stuff on my own back for a couple of years, stuff that’s
coming out or about to come out or about to be made. It was also
something I was really keen to do because I felt it was a world that I
loved very much. It was a world I recognized and felt I could put a lot
into and assist with. Whether it was pulling in favors from cast members
and friends like Gwyneth [Paltrow] and really making sure they saw the
trailer and read the script, or whether it was just being able to sit
with someone like Kerry [Conran] and throwing in ideas and know that I
wasn’t throwing in ideas that were of a completely different genre.
It was basically my enthusiasm, to be honest, and I
wanted to help out as much as I could. What was interesting though was
that in the end the part I really played best, I think, as a producer
was on set enabling Kerry to do what he needed to do to keep us all
running. I think one hard thing with inexperience is recognizing a lot
of it is energy. If you have done that sort of film, [then] everyone
knows what’s going on and who’s doing what. And on this, of course,
we’re all learning so I felt really the best thing I could do on it
was to really maintain a kind of relationship on it with all the crew
who were as naïve as I was as to what was going on. And making sure
that equally Kerry felt everyone was behind him and with him and for
him.
It must have been really hard to get the right tone
because you’re trying to capture an era of innocence and lack of
cynicism.
Well funny enough, first of all that was really in the script so the
blueprint was there. Gwyneth and I knew from the get-go exactly what
[that was like]. We just kind of got that tone the first time we read it
through. And once we knew it worked, actually we spent the whole time
just trying to embellish it. And Kerry kept adding little moments to
that. Because we knew more was more actually in this case we could
really run with this. The reason we went to Gwyneth was because we knew
that she would get that tone and it was important, obviously, that the
two of us get it and not fight to find it throughout the making of the
piece. The majority of it was there on the page.
Any chance there will be a sequel?
I hope so.
